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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2021 New Anime – Premieres for Friday, January 8th 2021

It’s amazing how much things can change in a short amount of time. Yesterday during the day I was all geared-up to come home and watch anime, but then before I went to bed I started to feel suspiciously cruddy. Now I’m working from home and hoping that all I have is a case of the creeping crud. Luckily I don’t feel too poorly, but I’m a little irritated that the only places I’ve been for quite a while (aside from work, which is fairly isolated) are “the grocery store” and “the other grocery store” and I still managed to catch something.

On the upside, it does mean I get to use my lunch time to watch a little anime to maybe catch up a little bit (not that I’m stressing). This group of premieres is the largest so far, but if this post gets too long I might split it in two so that I don’t overwhelm folks.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2021 New Anime – EX-ARM

I didn’t really plan to do any single-episode posts this season for reasons that have been stated repeatedly by now. But I had a suspicion that I might have reason to set aside some extra time for this premiere, so I skipped ahead a bit in my viewing order to ensure I got to watch it almost as soon as it dropped.

I make it a policy not to dunk too hard on anything nowadays, because as fun as it is in the moment it leaves behind an unpalatable emptiness that I’d rather avoid. That said, because we’re all here to talk about an art form that we really enjoy, I think it’s important to be critical when it’s warranted, at least to the point that folks are able to make their own decisions.

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2021 New Anime – Premieres for Thursday, January 7th, 2021

So far I’m really enjoying the more chill pacing of writing reviews this season. It’s not that there are fewer premieres, it’s more that I’m holding myself to more realistic standards and not getting so stressed about being one person attempting to complete the work of several. Knowing that I’m trying to write a reasonable amount rather than word-vomiting the huge essays I had been writing about each new show has kept me from dreading the process. I can’t guarantee that there will never be word vomit, but I’m trying to keep it as a “sometimes” issue.

These premieres mark the end of the first week of the new year. It’s already been a wild ride, that’s for sure. There have been quite a few jokes about people deciding not to renew after their free 7-day trial… I for one am deeply hoping that the year will be looking up a little bit from here. At least I will try to enjoy some great anime!

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First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2021 New Anime – Premieres for Wednesday, January 6th 2021

Well, as I’m writing this it’s definitely been an interesting couple of days in the United States. To be honest, it took a day or two to get enough sleep to feel like I could pay attention to an entire anime episode and write coherently about it. I think there are some folks who can use media to escape from whatever happens to be going on; my anxiety is just too terrible to let up for 25 minutes so I can take in an anime episode. But I’ve been wanting to watch anime, so I’m going to give it a try and see how far I get.

Most folks will notice that the look of the blog has changed; while I wasn’t really planning to switch things up at this very moment, a friend let me know of some image compatibility issues that were showing up on the mobile site so I figured it would be a good opportunity to make a change to my very out-of-date theme. I may be tweaking things in the coming days, but this is pretty close to what I wanted.

Note: There is a small spoiler for Hortensia Saga in its review. It’s one of the main conceits of the series and if you’re looking closely enough you can identify it on your own (even though the show itself is not keen to call it out directly), but I know more than one person who missed it until participating in discussions afterward, so if you’d rather go in completely blind you can skip the second review in this post.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2020 First Impressions – Tonikawa: Over the Moon for You

Fly me to the moon…

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Summary: When Nasa Yuzaki was born, his parents named him something that reflected their aspirations and ideals for him, and since then it’s followed him like a curse. Other people chuckle because it reminds them of the space agency “NASA.” In order to live with this burden, Nasa throws his heart into studying and training his body, his goal being to distinguish himself and overshadow his own name. Things are looking good for him until he sees a beautiful girl walking down the street one snowy evening. As he crosses the street to meet her, he gets hit by a truck. His body is a wreck, but he absolutely must know they mysterious girl. Delirious with pain, he asks her to date him. She agrees – but only on the condition that they get married. This is the last thing Nasa remembers before falling unconscious.

After his recovery, his school aspirations don’t seem quite as important. Nasa decides to go to work instead, and lives modestly on his own. One day he hears a knock on the door – it’s the girl he was so smitten with, and she’s come to collect on their promise. She introduces herself as Tsukasa, provides a marriage registration certificate, and leads Nasa to the prefectural office in order to legally formalize their union. While this is all moving incredibly quickly, Nasa seems powerless to resist (nor does he seem interested in doing much resisting). Tsukasa entered his life like the mysterious Princess Kaguya, and unlike the Emperor and Woodcutter, he’s not going to let this woman go.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Given

Ritsuka played guitar but has lost interest in the instrument. One day, he meets Mafuyu, who is holding a broken guitar. Ritsuka unwillingly starts teaching Mafuyu the guitar, but when he hears Mafuyu’s voice, things suddenly begin to change for Ritsuka. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 11

Source: Manga

Review: Note: this review may contain mild spoilers for the anime series.

When I was in high school I played flute in the concert band. I enjoyed it so much that I even took outside lessons and participated in the annual solo competitions put on by the area schools. I didn’t have a great time in school overall, but being able to express myself through music is one of the better memories I have of that time in my life. I came to the realization at some point that when your emotions operate outside what other people are willing to tolerate on a regular basis, it’s life’s other more artistic avenues that serve as an alternative outlet for those complicated, powerful feelings.

Given is the story of a budding relationship between two high school students, a tale it heartily accomplishes through sensitive, slow-burn character development. But it’s also a peek into the life of someone dealing with trauma and the shame that seemed to crop up in its aftermath. Unsurprisingly, it’s music that seems to tie everything together.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Granbelm

In a world that long ago featured the existence of magic, but has long since lost that ability. The story begins when the very normal high school student Mangetsu Kohinata meets Shingetsu Ernesta Fukami, who has migrated back to Japan from Germany, on a night with a full moon. – MAL

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Mangetsu is a typical high school student whose propensity toward helping others has resulted in her making lunches for many of her classmates. One evening, as the full moon shines brightly out her window, she realizes that she’s left a lunch box at school, so she goes to retrieve it. As she’s about the leave the school, the world seems to dissolve, leaving in its place an illusory world that’s somehow familiar, but very different.

Outside several girls in magical mecha entities battle one-another, and they wonder why Mangetsu doesn’t seem to have her own suit of armor. One of them, Shingetsu Ernesta, defends Mangetsu until she’s able to hear the truth – at one time, the world was filled with magic, but it was sealed away to save humanity. Now, those from magical bloodlines meet at the full moon and battle for dominance until only one remains. Soon Mangetsu numbers among them as her powers are awakened and she quickly learns to draw upon them.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Fire Force

In the year 198 of the Age of the Sun, Tokyo is a crowded cosmopolis. But the world’s most populous city is threatened by devils that cause people to burst into flame at random. The only ones who can stop it are the Pyrofighters, a team of specialized firefighters. The young Shinra, blessed with the ability to ignite his feet and travel at the speed of a rocket, wants nothing more than to be a hero, and knows that this is the place for him. But he’s not the best at following orders. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: As a child, Shinra witnessed the death of his mother and younger brother in a horrible fire. As one with pyrokinetic abilities, he was blamed for the accident, but Shinra remembers having seen something terrifying withing the billowing flames. Now, his talents with fire have lead him to join the Fire Force, a group of firefighters who help put to rest the souls of infernals, those inexplicably consumed by flames.

No one knows what caused the appearance of the infernals in the first place, though one of the duties of the Fire Force is to attempt to deduce the cause of these seemingly random fiery transformations. As Shinra goes on his first mission, he begins to experience the parallels between his own experience and the situation at hand. It’s this understanding that allows Shinra to draw upon his pyrokinetic power and put the infernal to rest.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord.

Dale is a cool, composed, and highly skilled adventurer who’s made quite a name for himself despite his youth. One day on a job deep in the forest, he comes across a little devil girl who’s almost wasted away. Unable to just leave her there to die, Dale takes her home and becomes her adoptive father. Devil or not, Latina is beyond adorable, and the adventurer soon finds himself head over heels with being a parent. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Dale has never had to think far beyond his next mission or his next meal, but when he finds an orphaned devil girl in the forest one day, he’s suddenly forced to look beyond his own day-to-day survival. The girl has one broken horn, marking her as a criminal – but one would be hard-pressed to come up with any scenario in which a kid her age should be banished in such a way. Dale learns that her name is Latina, and he takes her back to his home in the walled city of Kreuz.

After cleaning Latina up, Dale considers his options. He’s barely 18 and his job as an adventurer keeps him away from his home base for days at a time. But the “perpetually under-funded” city orphanage probably wouldn’t be that happy to have yet another mouth to feed. And Dale has a support system in Rita and Kenneth, the proprietors of the restaurant where Dale rents a room. Rather than dump Latina in the hands of strangers, Dale chooses the path toward instant fatherhood, with all its challenges and surprises.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Dr. Stone

Taiju is about to confess to the girl he loves when a mysterious force hits the Earth and turns every human into stone. Taiju and his friend Senku wake up thousands of years later and begin to rebuild society. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Senku is a scientific genius, and Taiju is a lovable meathead. But neither boy’s particular strengths allow them to escape the mysterious green light that envelopes the Earth and turns all of its people to stone. By sheer force of will, Taiju holds onto his consciousness and vows to finish his confession to his crush, Yuzuriha, should they ever break out of their stony prison.

When Taiju finally does manage to break free, he finds the landscape almost completely transformed. Senku has been awake for 6 months already, and tells him the news – it’s now 3,700 later than when they were transformed, and the world has essentially been thrust back into the stone age. But Senku has a goal, and with his brains and Taiju’s brawn, he believes it’s a realistic one. He plans to use scientific knowledge and technique to recover humanity’s lost technology, and restore civilization to its former glory.

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